Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.

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The World I Know is updated on a semi-regular basis by segacs.

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12:27 PM
The election and the Jewish Commmunity

Ahead of Monday's election, several Jewish organizations in Canada have published transcripts of interviews with Paul Martin, Stephen Harper, and Jack Layton (with Gilles Duceppe to follow). They have also summarized interviews with MP candidates from each party in the Toronto and Montreal areas, and a report on a candidates meeting in Vancouver:

The Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA), the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy Public Affairs Committee (CIJA-PAC), Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), the Canada-Israel Committee (CIC), and the Quebec-Israel Committee (QIC) have conducted interviews with the party leaders and selected local candidates on a number of issues including Israel, antisemitism, terrorism and community security.

In general, I'm uncomfortable with anyone who purpots to speak for an entire community. But to their credit, these groups have not so much as issued an ensorsement; they have asked questions that they think might be of interest to many Canadian Jews, and posted the answers, leaving it up to readers to make up their own minds and draw their own conclusions (for the most part).

This is not going as far as the Canadian Islamic Congress, which has openly been calling on all Canadian Muslims to vote NDP - or strategically Liberal, has published such articles as the one entitled ten reasons not to vote Conservative, and has issued its now-infamous grading of Federal MPs, which seems to rank MPs mainly by their stance on Israel. I, for one, find it extremely insulting that the CIC assumes that Canadian Muslims are incapable of making up their own minds on the issues.

But whether Muslim, Jewish, or any other religion, none of us are party members in a parliament without free votes. No, we are all individual citizens, fully capable of evaluating the candidates and issues, and drawing our own conclusions. Bloc voting may sometimes work inside the House of Commons, but outside it, we are all more than just a label. Not all Jews must vote the same way, any more than all Muslims must vote the same way.

So with all those disclaimers, I've posted the transcripts anyway... read them and draw your own conclusions.

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4:46 PM
La Fête Nationale

Happy St-Jean Baptiste Day to Quebec nationalists... and to everyone in Quebec, for that matter. (Hey, who can complain about a day off?)

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10:43 PM
One small step

The opening remarks of Anne Bayefsky, addressing the U.N. Conference on Confronting Anti-Semitism, are sharp, direct, and provide a much-needed reality check:

I won't post excerpts because I urge everyone to read the entire thing. (Via Meryl Yourish).

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11:17 PM
It had to be a mistake, right? I mean, what possible motivation could Iran have had to sieze British ships? That was everyone's first reaction anyway.

But it wasn't a mistake. And neither is Iran's uncooperative attitude with UN weapons inspectors. Taken together, you gotta wonder whether there's something else going on here, and we're just ignoring all the signs. I don't know, but I don't like it one bit.

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11:05 PM
Svend Robinson has been charged with theft for stealing a ring at an estate sale.

The "incident" caused him to step down as an MP for the NDP, amidst self-serving crocodile tears. But if he thought that his apologies and his life as a public figure would allow him to escape responsibility for his actions, well, think again. He 'fessed up. Now it's time to pay up.

I'm trying not to be too jubilant here, but, well, it's difficult I'll admit. Robinson has been a first-class ass for a while. Now his political legacy finally reflects that.

Ever the politician, of course, Svend did manage to resign just in time for these charges to be unlikely to stick to the NDP. That's my only regret in this whole debacle. Svend, I'm sure, has plenty.

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2:41 PM
The 35% rule:

Demerger activists in cities that lost their bids due to the 35% rule are decrying it as undemocratic:

Disgusted.

That's how Michael Vadacchino felt about the result of last night's demerger referendum in LaSalle.

Vadacchino, a borough councillor and leader of the demerger committee, said the system implemented for the referendum vote was completely undemocratic.

[. . . ]

But getting 35 per cent of people to vote at all, let alone the same way, isn't easy, he said.

"They made the barrier so high, they knew it would be as difficult as possible to achieve."

LaSalle voted 60% in favour of demerger, but those 60% of votes represented only 20% of all registered voters. People who stayed home, were out of town, or who moved away or even passed away and didn't get their named removed from the heavily-padded lists, all counted as automatic "no" votes under the 35% rule.

In the other Montreal sectors where demerger failed, the result was even closer. Anjou and Ste-Genevieve are bitter about the 35% rule as well. In Saint-Laurent, 75% of the votes cast were for the Yes side, but they represented only 28.5% of registered voters. Pierrefonds also voted over 70% "Yes". And Roxboro and Ile-Bizard both lost by razor-thin margins.

The 35% rule was designed as an added hoop for demergerites to jump through before they could get their cities back. But despite that, I'm starting to re-examine it with interest.

Maybe - just maybe - it's not such a bad idea after all. In fact, I think we ought to immediately apply this rule to all Montreal municipal and provincial elections from now on.

That means that Gerard Tremblay would have to get 35% of all registered voters in Montreal to turn out and vote for him in the next election. No simple majorities for you, M. Tremblay. And Jean Charest would need 35% of all Quebeckers of voting age to turn out and vote for him before he could get back into office.

With this rule, we could ensure that no politican ever got elected to any office... ever again.

A world without politicians? Sounds pretty good to me.

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1:27 PM
Restoring democracy in Quebec

Whatever your opinion of the demerger referendums, the dirty tricks that cost some cities their demerger bid, or the eventual outcome for both demerged and still-merged cities, they changed the face of democracy in Quebec, as Henry Aubin explains (sorry, link requires registration, which makes me feel less guilty about quoting a large chunk of it):

The demerger voters have not only rocked the boat of Quebec authoritarianism. On Montreal Island and Longueuil, they've capsized it.

By authoritarianism, I mean that tradition in which elected officials - on both the municipal and provincial levels - bring citizenship to its lowest possible level on the democratic scale. In return for being allowed to vote every few years, grateful citizens are supposed to shut up between elections and let people they've voted into office become bullies. The public possesses no automatic right to being consulted between elections on policy issues - a right that in most North Americans and western Europeans take for granted.

[ . . . ]

These results augur a sea change in the way provincial and city governments in the Montreal region will have to relate to citizens. In the most impudent display of people power in memory, voters in many municipalities across the province have insisted on the right to have a say in decision-making between elections.

Legally speaking, the provincial and city governments will be as free as they've always been to treat the public highhandedly. But the political ethos has changed.

Just as the demise of the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords created a political (as distinct from legal) precedent that has made constitutional reform unthinkable, so the collapse of mega-Montreal and mega-Longueuil will make certain practices unacceptable.

No longer will a provincial government dare to transform public institutions without an electoral mandate, as did the former Parti Quebecois government in its breathtaking abolition of more than municipalities.

No longer will a provincial government refuse even to hold public hearings on so vital issue.

No longer will it dare to embark on so sweeping an enterprise without having studies to back it up.

True, this new mindfulness by government will not be automatic. In examining yesterday's results, politicians are not going to slap their foreheads and renounce arrogance.

No, what will change is the public's confidence in its ability to stand up and insist on being heard - and not just by the provincial government but also by city governments and other public bodies.

In fact, with all the conflicting studies and pieces of propaganda issued by both sides, it's almost impossible to predict whether cities that demerged will be better off than ones that didn't. But for most demergerites, this wasn't the issue. The point was that the government can't steamroll over democracy.

And, at least as far as this goes, mission accomplished. Next time, they'll think twice.

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11:26 AM
This seems to have been posted only as a sidenote: Ma'ariv is reporting that, according to Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, the Czech Republic has invited Israel to join the European Union as a full-fledged member.

Israel as a member of the EU? Will it have to agree to hate itself in order to join?

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11:14 AM
UNHCR: Israel haven for refugees

Refugees from war-torn Liberia, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Congo, and others are finding a safe haven... in Israel:

Israel has provided refugee status for 500 foreign residents from countries in which civil wars are taking place, according to the UN High commissioner for refugees' representative in Israel Mickey Bavli.

Speaking to reporters on the occasion of World Refugee Day, Bavli said that over the past three years, status has been given to people from countries such as Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast, as a result of which an inter-ministerial department that examines such requests was established two years ago.

At present, a further 200 applications are being examined.

Even while lobbying for urgently-needed reforms to the UNRWA - the agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, which Israel claims is facilitating terrorism - Israel is working with UNHCR to help legitimate asylum seekers and refugees from elsewhere in the world.

The UNHCR representative in Israel explained the thinking last January, when Israel set up an internal body to review refugee claims:

UNHCR's honorary representative in Israel, Mickey Bavly, said Israelis understand the plight of refugees, since more than three million citizens of the country were themselves forced into exile.

"The Israeli people have a very personal understanding of what it means to be a refugee, you don't need a real effort to persuade them," Bavly said. "But what was needed was to persuade the Israeli government to take the action and not rely solely on the U.N. [to examine claims]."

Israel has always been the safe haven for Jews all over the world. But these claimants are different. Israel is signalling its openness and willingness to reach out a hand to help people who need it, regardless of their background... as long as they want to live in the state, not destroy it. A critical distinction.

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11:08 AM
Who woulda thought? South Korea is refusing to cave to threats and kidnappings, resolving to send troops to Iraq despite the terror tactics:

South Korea will go ahead with its plan to send 3,000 troops to help rebuild Iraq despite a threat from Iraqi militants to behead a South Korean hostage, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

[ . . . ]

The group holding [33-year-old businessman Kim Sun-il] said South Korea had 24 hours from Sunday night to withdraw its decision or they would behead him, Arabic television station Al Jazeera reported.

"I am telling you that there will be no change to our government's basic spirit and position --- our plan to send troops to Iraq is for the support and reconstruction of Iraq," Choi said.

[ . . . ]

"If we accept the terrorists' demand this time, the terrorists will continue threatening the world," he said.

South Korea knows a thing or two about tyrannies. Their next-door neighbour has taught them well. Still, who woulda thought that the country that has shown so little spine lately in dealing with their Northern counterparts would stand so firm on their Iraq commitment?

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11:00 AM
Sperm donor gets visitation rights:

A man who donated his sperm so that a lesbian couple could have a child has been given visitation rights by a Quebec judge.

The Journal de Montréal reported this morning that Quebec Superior Court Justice Suzanne Courteau granted the man the right to visit the child, three times per week, even though he isn't officially recognized as the father's child.

And why should he be recognized as the father? Is he helping to raise the child? Support it? To be its father in any way whatsoever? Does he even meet the most liberal, loose definition of fatherhood imaginable? No, absolutely not.

Yesterday was father's day. A day to appreciate our fathers and all they have done for us. This man has done nothing for this baby. Being a father is about a lot more than simply donating some sperm. The courts should recognize that, and leave the decisions like these up to the baby's real parents.

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10:01 PM
Well, the demerger results are mostly in now. Radio-Canada has the breakdown with cute little traffic lights. Looks like 15 of 22 are out of the Montreal megacity. There were less demergers in other regions.

Stay tuned for the political fallout.

Update: As predicted, both sides are claiming victory:

"I think the word is jubilation that one would apply to what is going on right now in Westmount,'' said Peter Trent, former mayor of [Westmount].

And Gerard Tremblay is playing the spinning game, trying to see the silver lining:

"Montreal is bigger and stronger than it was before,'' he said, noting that places like Anjou, St-Laurent, Pierrefonds, LaSalle and Roxboro, which weren't part of Montreal before the forced mergers, now are.

Two of those lost their bids by tiny margins. And all of them had a majority Yes vote, but failed to get the 35% required. If I were Tremblay I wouldn't be so proud that most voters wanted out.

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8:24 PM
Demerger Results

8:30pm: The polls have been closed for 90 minutes and the results are starting to come in.

So far on the Montreal island, the Yes side has pulled it off in Anjou, Baie D'Urfé, Beaconsfield, Dorval, Kirkland, Île-Bizard, Île-Dorval, Montreal-Est, Montreal-West, T.M.R., Pointe-Claire, Roxboro, and Senneville, among others.

Dollard, my hometown till recently, is still up in the air. The Yes side is leading with 83.95%, but so far only 33.02% of voters have cast a ballot. The magic number of 35% must be reached for the result to count. There are still a number of polling stations to report, though, so it's looking encouraging.

8:35pm: We did it!!! Dollard has 39.43% voter turnout.

8:40pm: Côte St-Luc and Hampstead are still up in the air; neither has hit the 35% mark yet. Westmount is just a few votes shy, with a lot more polls to count. And Pierrefonds and St-Laurent are both very far away and it doesn't look like either of them are going to make it.

8:45pm: Off the island of Montreal and around the province, a number of former municipalities reached 35% but voted "No". These include Aubert-Gallion, Beauport, Black Lake, Bromptonville, Buckingham, Canton Sutton (by a narrow margin), Cap-Rouge, Charlesbourg, Charny, Gallix, Hull, Maple Grove, Melocheville, Metis-Sur-Mer, Mont-Brun, Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, Petit-Matane, Robertsonville, Saint-Athanase, Saint-Élie-d'Orford, Saint-Émile (also by a narrow margin), Sainte-Rosalie, Sainte-Veronique, Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Saint-Jean-des-Piles, Saint-Luc-de-Matane, Saint-Rédempteur, Sillery, and Val-Bélair. There are close races in a number of others. Oh well, that's their democratic right and at least the people had the opportunity to decide. And besides, I can take consolation in the fact that the "no" victory isn't a victory for Gerard Tremblay.

8:50pm: The 35% mark has been surpassed in Westmount, with over 90% of ballots cast voting Yes. As if there was ever any doubt. Cote St-Luc and Hampstead are still shy of the cutoff.

8:55pm: Hampstead has pulled it off. I guess the largest polls reported last because the turnout in the end was over 50%, with more than 90% of the votes to demerge.

9:00pm: Cote-St-Luc has surpassed 35% and thus voted to demerge. It seems that on the island of Montreal, only Pierrefonds and St-Laurent have not yet reached 35%. Neither seems likely to either, though it might be close.

9:10pm: Final results in Dollard are 85.21% Yes, with 44.12% voter turnout.

9:25pm: Of the 22 former cities on the island of Montreal that held referendums today, 18 have now voted to demerge. Only Ste-Genevieve, Pierrefonds, LaSalle, and Saint-Laurent are still short of the 35% turnout needed to make their yes majorities count.

9:35pm: As several people have correctly pointed out, I've made an error. The 35% rule actually states that 35% of all people in each municipality must vote yes in order for the vote to count.

Therefore, the cities of Anjou, Île-Bizard, and Roxboro, contrary to my earlier report, actually failed their bid to demerge. All three had Yes majorities and more than 35% of people voted, but less than 35% of the total people voted Yes.

Ste-Genevieve and LaSalle also lost their bids to demerge, and Pierrefonds and Saint-Laurent appear to be headed towards losses as well.

Therefore, of the 22 cities on the island of Montreal that held referendums, it looks like only 15 will successfully demerge.

9:50pm: Pierrefonds has officially failed its demerger bid.

9:55pm: Dollard's final results were actually perilously close. 37.36% of registered voters cast a "Yes" ballot, which surpasses the 35% required but is a lot closer than I would have thought. I'm glad now that I urged my friends and relatives in Dollard to take the time to vote. Unlike in most elections *ahem Federal*, every vote actually counts in this one.

Oh well, Dollard is out of the megacity and that's what matters.

10:00pm: The results are in. 15 Montreal cities have voted to demerge. Anjou, Pierrefonds, St-Laurent, Ste-Genevieve, and LaSalle have all fallen well short of the required 35%.

And 132 people in Île-Bizard and 74 people in Roxboro are kicking themselves right now for staying home.

Hmmm, considering that Dollard and Roxboro had been merged into a single borough, I wonder what happens now that DDO has voted to demerge and Roxboro hasn't. Does Roxboro become its own borough? Will it be merged into Pierrefonds?

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8:18 PM
Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there.

And to whoever invented the father's day barbecue, with all sorts of evil foods, I simultaneously thank and curse you.

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